NCR's fourth-quarter profit drops 55%

BenjaminPimentel

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- NCR Corp. reported Wednesday a steep drop in fourth-quarter earnings, largely a reflection of the maker of automated teller machines spinning off its data-warehousing business.

Dayton, Ohio-based NCR
NCR, -1.53%
posted a quarterly net profit of $79 million, or 43 cents a share, down from $174 million, or 96 cents, earned in the final three months of 2006.

Adjusted income was 52 cents a share, flat with the year-earlier quarter. Revenue rose 13% on a year-over-year basis, reaching $1.52 billion.

Analysts had, on average, expected NCR to report earnings of 52 cents a share on revenue of $1.48 billion, according to estimates compiled by Thomson Financial.

Shares of NCR traded down more than 6% at one point in morning dealings and stood lately at $22.05, down 84 cents.

NCR, which makes ATMs and retail point-of-sale systems, recently spun off Teradata Corp.
TDC, -0.82%
a data-warehousing business. Some 181 million Teradata shares were distributed to NCR stockholders at the end of September.

In a statement, Chairman and Chief Executive Bill Nuti said the company "delivered a strong performance" in NCR's first reporting period since the spin-off.

NCR noted that revenue from its retail store automation business jumped 28% from the year-earlier period to $331 million, while revenue from its customer-services unit tallied 9% growth to $531 million.

The company also said it expects 2008 income from continuing operations to be in a range of $1.48 to $1.55 a share. Growth in revenue from continuing operations was pegged at 3% to 5%.

The Thomson Financial-derived analyst averages for 2008 stand at earnings of $1.48 a share and revenue of $4.97 billion. On a comparable basis for 2007, NCR earned $1.45 a share and generated revenue of $4.97 billion.

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